Puzzles with overlapping strip members arranged around the edges of a square playing surface and deployable against the surface in a preselected order to achieve a puzzle solution were known in the prior art. The present inventor was issued U.S. Pat. No. 3,892,411 for one such puzzle which involved a plurality of transparent strip members with indicia thereon that provided a puzzle solution wherein the respective indicia in the overlapped strips were disposable in a preselected alternating sequence. While such patented puzzle had unique properties in comparison with those known before its conception, the utility of such puzzle apparatus had its limitations.
The desire existed, even after the just mentioned patented invention, for a similar type of puzzle that had inherent multiple solution sequences even in a specific indicia-bearing form of the puzzle, as well as a puzzle having a discrete form which could be used to make puzzle solutions of widely different character and degree of difficulty in achievement.